At least there's some thing good today...

Last night, we had some car trouble. Tim was on his way to his sister's house in Indiana when the car broke down. It was 9pm and he was still 4 hours from her. Long story short, it was expensive. BUT! While I was sitting here alone, I applied for 3 jobs. I was able to apply online, so that was working in my favor. 2 of them are something that I've done in the past, and one was using the degree that sits here waiting for something to come along....well, something came along, but not for the degree. Tonight I got a phone call from someone and he was acting like I should know who he is, but that must just be his personality. The good news is that I have an interview! So, cross your fingers and toes that this goes well. It will start out as a group interview on Wednesday, November 5th at 1pm. There is childcare onsite for the interview, so that's good. I'm sure I can locate someone to watch R&R if I'm not back by 3:30.

Anyway, wish me luck!!

WFMW: Works For Me!

Last week, I told you about a shampoo bar that I love. I got that from a link on WFMW.

This week, I'm telling you about creating your own blog headers....a tip I got from WFMW.

Ladies (and gents), WFMW REALLY! works for me!

Queen Bee offered up a tip a few weeks ago about using scrapblog.com to create blog headers. I loved the idea of making my own blog header, but I didn't have Photoshop or another similar program so I thought that I couldn't do it. I was bummed, but I found a neat graphic that I used (remember the river rocks?) and I liked that so I was good. But, upon inspection of this scrapblog site, I was hooked! It's a digital scrapbook website, so you can do that but you can also use it to create blog headers. If you're using blogger, you can use the full size, but if you are on another blog site, you may have to trim them down to an allowable size, but whatever program you use to view/edit your photos (even the free program that comes with your digital camera) works to crop it. I've already made 2 for me, one for my mom, one for my sister-in-law Stephanie, and one for my friend Christy. Stephanie used it to make one for her hubby's business website, too. IT'S SO EASY! So, pop over to scrapblog and see what you can create and then get over to Rocks In My Dryer for more WFMW hints and tips, maybe you'll come up with something fabulous!

Remember 1998?

The Rules: A.) Go to Music Outfitters. B.) Enter the year you graduated from high school in the search function and get the list of 100 most popular songs of that year. C.) Bold the songs you like, strike through the ones you REALLY hate. (I can't strike through, so I am using italics).

1. Too Close, Next
2. The Boy Is Mine, Brandy and Monica
3. You're Still The One, Shania Twain
4. Truly Madly Deeply, Savage Garden
5. How Do I Live, LeAnn Rimes
6. Together Again, Janet
7. All My Life, K-Ci and JoJo
8. Candle In The Wind 1997, Elton John
9. Nice and Slow, Usher
10. I Don't Want To Wait, Paula Cole
11. How's It Going To Be, Third Eye Blind
12. No, No, No, Destiny's Child
13. My Heart Will Go On, Celine Dion
14. Gettin' Jiggy Wit, Will Smith
15. You Make Me Wanna..., Usher
16. My Way, Usher
17. My All, Mariah Carey
18. The First Night, Monica
19. Been Around The World, Puff Daddy and The Family
20. Adia, Sarah McLachlan
21. Crush, Jennifer Paige
22. Everybody (Backstreet's Back), Backstreet Boys
23. I Don't Want To Miss A Thing, Aerosmith
24. Body Bumpin Yippie-Yi-Yo, Public Announcement
25. This Kiss, Faith Hill
26. I Don't Ever Want To See You Again, Uncle Sam
27. Let's Ride, Montell Jordan
28. Sex And Candy, Marcy Playground
29. Show Me Love, Robyn
30. A Song For Mama, Boyz II Men
31. What You Want, Mase
32. Frozen, Madonna
33. Gone Till November, Wyclef Jean
34. My Body, Lsg
35. Tubthumping, Chumbawamba
36. Deja Vu (Uptown Baby), Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz
37. I Want You Back, 'N Sync
38. When The Lights Go Out, Five
39. They Don't Know, Jon B.
40. Make Em' Say Uhh!, Master P
41. Make It Hot, Nicole Featuring Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott and Mocha
42. Never Eve, All Saints
43. I Get Lonely, Janet
44. Feel So Good, Mase
45. Say It, Voices Of Theory
46. Kiss The Rain, Billie Myers
47. Come With Me, Puff Daddy
48. Romeo And Juliet, Sylk-E Fyne
49. It's All About Me, Mya and Sisqo
50. I Will Come To You, Hanson
51. One Week, Barenaked Ladies I LOVE THIS SONG!!
52. Swing My Way, K.P. and Envyi
53. The Arms Of The One Who Loves You, Xscape
54. My Love Is The Shhh!, Somethin' For The People
55. Daydreamin', Tatyana Ali
56. We're Not Making Love No More, Dru Hill
57. Semi-Charmed Life, Third Eye Blind
58. I Do, Lisa Loeb
59. Lookin' At Me, Mase
60. Looking Through Your Eyes, LeAnn Rimes
61. Lately, Divine
62. Quit Playing Games (With My Heart), Backstreet Boys
63. I Still Love You, Next
64. Time After Time, Inoj
65. Are You Jimmy Ray?, Jimmy Ray
66. Cruel Summer, Ace Of Base
67. I Got The Hook Up!, Master P
68. Victory, Puff Daddy and The Family
69. Too Much, Spice Girls
70. Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are), Pras Feat. Ol' Dirty Bastard and Mya
71. How Deep Is Your Love, Dru Hill Featuring Redman
72. Friend Of Mine, Kelly Price
73. Turn It Up [Remix]/Fire It Up, Busta Rhymes
74. I'll Be, Edwin McCain
75. Ray Of Light, Madonna
76. All For You, Sister Hazel
77. Touch It, Monifah
78. Money, Power and Respect, Lox
79. Bitter Sweet Symphony, The Verve
80. Dangerous, Busta Rhymes
81. Spice Up Your Life, Spice Girls
82. Because Of You, 98 Degrees
83. The Mummers' Dance, Loreena McKennitt
84. All Cried Out, Allure Featuring 112
85. Still Not A Player, Big Punisher Featuring Joe
86. The One I Gave My Heart To, Aaliyah
87. Foolish Games/You Were Meant For Me, Jewel
88. Love You Down, Inoj
89. Do For Love, 2Pac
90. Raise The Roof, Luke
91. Heaven, Nu Flavor
92. The Party Continues, Jd
93. Sock It 2 Me, Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott Featuring Da Brat
94. Butta Love, Next
95. A Rose Is Still A Rose, Aretha Franklin
96. 4 Seasons Of Loneliness, Boyz II Men
97. Father, LL Cool J
98. Thinkin' Bout It, Gerald Levert
99. Nobody's Supposed To Be Here, Deborah Cox
100. Westside, TQ

Ok, I must've been living under a rock the year I graduated. There were SO MANY songs on this list that I've never heard or heard of. So, do this and leave a comment so I can come check out your list!

I (heart) making blog headers!

I love the Halloween one....I'm tempted to leave it up FOREVER. Nah, maybe not, but enjoy it this week, new one to follow next week (hopefully!)

Home again!

This past weekend, my DARLING husband kept the four boys and I went to South Dakota with my friend Kelly. We had so much fun!

The drive is 5 hours long....for the first 3 we talked so much that we didn't realize that it was that long and we ALMOST missed our exit to get on I-90. We made it and got to South Dakota almost exactly 5 hours after we left. My grandma and her friend Rene met us at Aunt Loie's house for supper Friday night and we had a really nice visit with them.

Saturday, Kelly went to her dog show (the whole reason we went out there) and I stayed back. Had a leisurely breakfast with Aunt Loie, got dressed and then went to Falls Park, took in the sights (that's one beautiful park!!),



had lunch at a nifty little place called Food and Fermentation. Pretty good food and we enjoyed a glass of wine with our lunch, YUMMY! Then we went back to Auntie's house, picked up Kelly and finished up some errands before heading out to Grandma's house for dinner with the family. We got to see some Elk since Uncle Dave was feeding some for a neighbor, so that was cool. (Dave and Jan left before we could get a pic and Macy left before pix AND without saying Goodbye....I guess that's the hazard of growing up!)




Sunday, I went with Kelly to her dog show.

Saturday they won Winners Dog (1 pt), and Sunday they got Open Dog (no pts). It was neat to see what she has to do to show Griffin and watch everyone. These people take their dog shows seriously....there were little doggy barber shops set up all over the place, complete with doggy blow dryers, leash holders so the gods didn't get away. One woman was using rollers in her dogs fur, the whole bit. It was kinda crazy, but neat to see, too. Then we drove home in a snow and wind storm. Lots of fun. (Thanks for driving, Kel!)



So, that was my weekend, how was yours?

WFMW: A BAR of shampoo?

"What? A BAR of shampoo? You're kidding me, right?"

That's what I thought when I saw a WFMW link from Where the Kudzu Grows. How could a bar of shampoo possibly work well? So, I tried it out. I bought it mid-July and that ONE bar lasted until early September! I had a travel box for it so that it wasn't sitting under the running water of the shower and near the end I happened to get a Soap Sock for it, so it worked AWESOME. I used every single sliver of the thing! It was SO AWESOME.

So, go visit Cheri at Sweet Hollow Farm and find out just how wonderful her shampoo bar really is! I just ordered another one today! While you're there, take a look around and see what else she makes, there are lots of great sounding soaps and salves! And then check out Shannon and the crew at Rocks In My Dryer for other WFMW hints and tips!

Thought of the day

Last year for Christmas, my mother-in-law got me a calendar that can be used year after year, it's spiral bound with a little "thought of the day" and the date without the year. I LOVE it! I'm not always good about remembering to turn the page, though! But, many times there have been little thoughts of the day that I'd like to share and I always forget but today I REMEMBERED!

"I'm not confused, I'm just well-mixed"


Last night Tim and I had a convo about some friends of ours and I told him something and 20 minutes later he told it back to me and claimed I'd never told him. Totally fits! So, enjoy your "well mixed" day!

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

Well, I ran across this blog doing "Kitchen Tip Tuesday" and since the kitchen is one place that I like to be, I thought I could participate. So, for my first tip,

USE YOUR PIZZA CUTTER!

It's a dandy tool for cutting up french toast or pancakes or whatever else your little ones might be eating. Simple to use and you aren't ending up with the mangled pieces of food that you get using a knife that won't cut thru something. So, that's it. Visit Tammy for more tips and some AWESOME looking recipes!

The Weekend....in pix

Saturday morning the boys all got haircuts....goofing around, I left Rugby a "mohawk" but he liked it and ended up keeping it. We have a deal that it's gone on November 1st, so that's only another week or so. He likes it and likes it to stand up (which it does practically on it's own.)

We made a pear pie with the pears that we got last weekend at the orchard. It was Ginger Pear Pie from allrecipes.com...it was alright, nothing spectacular, but was tasty.
Here's the cabinet under the sink a little further in progress. We bought pulls for the doors today, so that can go on and it will be done!
Then Tim added the quarter round to the cabinets in the kitchen. When we did the new floor, it didn't finish nice on the edges, so this took care of that.
(Don't look at the Cheerios on the floor, k?) Here he put the base trim around the cabinet in the kitchen under the breakfast bar where I keep my stand mixer. Finishes that off quite nicely!
And we put up the chair rail in Rugby's room, moved things around and have a dresser set sitting on the (protected) front porch (want to buy it??) I love how clean the chair rail makes the color contrast.

AND!! He put the trim board on the floor by the patio door. It cleans that up SO NICE!! No more little bit of rug showing and catching dirt and garbage. YAY!
So, that's how we spent our weekend, how about you??

All Jazzed Up For Fall

I jazzed up the template and my header for fall, like it?

The header was relatively easy to make, but there was a bit of a learning curve to the program I used. Now that I think I have an idea of how to make it work, I'm going to try to make a Christmas one that's more slender than tall. I guess that means I should get some pix of the kids for it. Hmm, me be early with THAT? Yea, probably not so much. Anyway, LEAVE A COMMENT and let me know what you think!!

Well, then. That explains a lot.

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz...

You Are a Doris!

You are a Doris -- "I must help others."

Dorises are warm, concerned, nurturing, and sensitive to other people's needs.

How to Get Along with Me

• * Tell me that you appreciate me. Be specific.


• * Share fun times with me.


• * Take an interest in my problems, though I will probably try to focus on yours.


• * Let me know that I am important and special to you.


• * Be gentle if you decide to criticize me.

In Intimate Relationships

• * Reassure me that I am interesting to you.


• * Reassure me often that you love me.


• * Tell me I'm attractive and that you're glad to be seen with me.

What I Like About Being a Doris

• * being able to relate easily to people and to make friends


• * knowing what people need and being able to make their lives better


• * being generous, caring, and warm


• * being sensitive to and perceptive about others' feelings


• * being enthusiastic and fun-loving, and having a good sense of humor

What's Hard About Being a Doris

• * not being able to say no


• * having low self-esteem


• * feeling drained from overdoing for others


• * not doing things I really like to do for myself for fear of being selfish


• * criticizing myself for not feeling as loving as I think I should


• * being upset that others don't tune in to me as much as I tume in to them


• * working so hard to be tactful and considerate that I suppress my real feelings

Dorises as Children Often

• * are very sensitive to disapproval and criticism


• * try hard to please their parents by being helpful and understanding


• * are outwardly compliant


• * are popular or try to be popular with other children


• * act coy, precocious, or dramatic in order to get attention


• * are clowns and jokers (the more extroverted Dorises), or quiet and shy (the more introverted Dorises)

Dorises as Parents

• * are good listeners, love their children unconditionally, and are warm and encouraging (or suffer guilt if they aren't)


• * are often playful with their children


• * wonder: "Am I doing it right?" "Am I giving enough?" "Have I caused irreparable damage?"


• * can become fiercely protective

Take Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz at HelloQuizzy

In progress

So yesterday, Tim says to me "Do you need anything built?"

Um, no. I was rinsing out the paint brush from painting the chair rail for the fishing bedroom (pix coming soon!) in the smaller bathroom and said, "No, but if we could afford it, I'd like to replace this cabinet. It looks cheap." (Under the sink)

To which he replies, "I have lumber, I'll just replace the face."

OOOOOOOOOKKKKKKKKKKK, so now that I thought we had the house about ready to list for sale, we're replacing the face of another cabinet. While it will be wonderful, I hate being in the midst of yet another project. So, here's a picture in progress. I'll post more when it's done.

SURPRISE!

BOY OH BOY is Timmy going to be surprised when he gets home! I put the last 10 screws into the cabinet thing he built me for the basement. Our friend Adam affectionately refers to my storage area as the bunker, so I guess I have a new bunker. I am loving it! I'm low on a few things so I may have to rearrange when I pick them up, but for now it's all set up. So easy to see what I have and the kids are able to reach a good deal of it so I can send R&R to get things now. YAY! Don't you just love it? (Aside from the neon green paint that was already there)



Then, because our little friend "Not Me" came to visit and peel paint off the wall while he was here, I painted the (formerly) blue bathroom. We still had some "Suede" from painting the basement walls, so I used that and there was BARELY enough, but I did finish and have a tiny bit left over for touchups. SWEET! This was a "free" make over for the bathroom.....aside from new curtains which I think I'll probably end up buying....maybe I can get some on Clearance at Wally-world. We'll see. The color is very similar to the other upstairs bathroom, but does make it feel bigger and a whole lot brighter, especially inside the shower.


So, after all that I ordered pizza and we watched a movie. I should probably do dishes (from yesterday) before going to bed tonight. Hope you're having a good weekend!

Just so random

I take SCORES of pictures of the boys. I haven't printed pictures other than what I need to mail to family in at least 3 years. It's bad. There's this incredible backlog of photos that I'd love to have in albums for the kids, but I'm sure it'll never happen. I know this lady that has doubles printed and keeps two albums of the same pictures....one for her and one for her son (can you tell he's an only?!) I'd love to do that, but with the four kids, I'd settle for each to just have their own. Anyway, the whole point of this post is simply to share a few of the many photos of the last month or two that I haven't yet. There's things that I don't even remember to blog about. Like when Rugby refused to go to bed until we'd pulled his tooth and now he looks like a jack o'lantern.

There's fun stuff, too, like when we went home for a visit a couple weeks ago, Riley got moved to the way back seat so that he and Rugby could watch a movie and Tim and I looked back to see this.... So sweet! While we were there, we got to visit Auntie Monica and the kids played with Oliver. I think they all liked that! I think that Rugby even got over his slight fear of dogs, too. Tucker had to try and get in on the action like he always does....heaven forbid he be left behind!
So, anyway, there's a bit of randomness from the last few weeks. I need to take a few pictures of the house, it's ready to be listed except for a couple pieces of trim and some major cleaning of the garage (which will have to be done after we list it). Tim undertook a major (he says minor) project for me today. He took out the nasty, droopy shelves between the chimney in the basement and built in new shelves that are correctly braced and added extra shelves and depth to them and some more shallower shelves on the sides for canned goods. I am LOVING this so far! He's gone cutting wood for some friends this weekend so I may end up finishing it, but it is wonderful to have it to the point that I can finish or wait til Sunday for him to do it. I love being married to a carpenter! Watch for those soon!

Have a good weekend, I have a little project planned for tomorrow while he's gone, so I don't know if I'll check in or not. (watch for pix of that, too!)

A Year Ago

A year ago, we were planning for my brother's wedding. Hard to believe that it's been a year already! I finally am getting around to posting this picture. My Auntie Loie took it, I think.

My hair was perfect, my makeup was perfect, my outfit was perfect. I made my jewelery. And, I've got a pretty handsome fella on my arm. You want more? Ok, add 4 super cute kids and I've got it all. :)

WFMW: Punkins!

Hello all, just me back to WFMW. This week, I'm telling you about carving pumpkins. Here in the chilly Wisconsin falls, carved pumpkins turn to mush in no time flat. Plus, you aren't able to use them for pie.

So, my genius children came up with a plan and I LOVE IT!! Acrylic paint. Simply let them paint the pumpkins and when the holiday is over, you can wash the paint off to use the pumpkins for pie! Totally works for me. :) Click here to check out more fabulous WFMW tips and hints.

What season are you?

You Scored as Fall You are FALL. You appreciate all that you have, and are willing to share with others. You are a friend in the truest sense of the word, and can easily focus your attention on those who need you, placing yourself on the back burner. You make sure your responsibilites are met before you allow yourself some free time. Fall 85% Winter 80% Spring 70% Summer 60%

So, what season are YOU? Click HERE to find out!

In tears

My Friend Christy ran in the Race for the Cure over the weekend. She ran in honor of my grandmother who recently finished treatment for breast cancer and lots of other people she's never even met. So, I sit here in tears watching the little video she put together (I'd link it, but her blog is private due to her hubby's job, etc) and seeing my Grandma's name with the others that Christy ran for. How special that she was able to do that.

THANKS CHRISTY!

By the way, she's a great runner! Here's the info from her blog on how she did:

****Race Updated****

I finally got the official results from yesterday's race! I am ECSTATIC!

Out of 3491 female participants yesterday, I place 124th!!!

In my age group, I placed 14th out of 454 women!


Woooo hooooooo!

A job?

Timmy was offered a job today. TEACHING!! We're still working on the details, but we're so excited that he has this chance. It's a long term sub job in that big group of cities close to us, so it'll be interesting for him. We'll see how it goes, I'll keep you posted!

CONGRATS TIMMY! I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!